Skip to main content

Agatha Awards 2020

Awards

Agatha Awards 2020

On July 17th, the winners of the 2020 Agatha Awards were announced at More Than Malice, Malice Domestic’s virtual festival. The Agatha Awards honor the "traditional mystery," books typified by the works of Agatha Christie and others. For the purposes of Malice Domestic, the genre is loosely defined as mysteries that contain no explicit sex, excessive gore or gratuitous violence, and are not classified as "hard-boiled."

For more information on the Agatha Awards and Malice Domestic, please visit https://www.MaliceDomestic.org
 


2020 Winners

 

Best Contemporary Novel
ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)

Best Historical Novel
THE LAST MRS. SUMMERS by Rhys Bowen (Berkley)

Best First Novel
MURDER AT THE MENA HOUSE by Erica Ruth Neubauer (Kensington)

Best Short Story
"Dear Emily Etiquette" by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Sep/Oct)

Best Nonfiction
PHANTOM LADY: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock, by Christina Lane (Chicago Review Press)

Best Children's/YA Mystery
HOLLY HERNANDEZ AND THE DEATH OF DISCO by Richard Narvaez (Piñata Books)
 

 
2020 Finalists 

 

Best Contemporary Novel

  • GIFT OF THE MAGPIE by Donna Andrews (Minotaur Books)
  • MURDER IN THE BAYOU BONEYARD by Ellen Byron (Crooked Lane Books)
  • FROM BEER TO ETERNITY by Sherry Harris (Kensington)
  • ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)
  • THE LUCKY ONE by Lori Rader-Day (William Morrow)

Best Historical Novel

  • THE LAST MRS. SUMMERS by Rhys Bowen (Berkley)
  • THE FATE OF A FLAPPER by Susanna Calkins (St. Martin's Griffin)
  • A LADY'S GUIDE TO MISCHIEF AND MURDER by Dianne Freeman (Kensington)
  • TAKEN TO SOON by Edith Maxwell (Beyond the Page Publishing)
  • THE TURNING TIDE by Catriona McPherson (Quercus)

Best First Novel

  • A SPELL FOR TROUBLE by Esme Addison (Crooked Lane Books)
  • WINTER WITNESS by Tina deBellegarde (Level Best Books)
  • DERAILED by Mary Keliikoa (Epicenter Press, Inc.)
  • MURDER AT THE MENA HOUSE by Erica Ruth Neubauer (Kensington)
  • MURDER MOST SWEET by Laura Jensen Walker (Crooked Lane Books)

Best Short Story

  • "Dear Emily Etiquette" by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Sep/Oct)
  • "The Red Herrings at Killington Inn" by Shawn Reilly Simmons Masthead: Best New England Crime Stories (Level Best Books)
  • "The Boy Detective & The Summer of ‘74" by Art Taylor (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine Jan/Feb)
  • "Elysian Fields" by Gabriel Valjan California Schemin’: The 2020 Bouchercon Anthology (Wildside Press)
  • "The 25 Year Engagement" by James Ziskin In League with Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon (Pegasus Crime)

Best Nonfiction

  • SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO LIE: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy, by Leslie Brody (Seal Press)
  • AMERICAN SHERLOCK: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI, by Kate Winkler Dawson (G. P. Putnam's Sons)
  • HOWDUNIT: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club, by Martin Edwards (Collins Crime Club)
  • PHANTOM LADY: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock, by Christina Lane (Chicago Review Press)
  • H. R. F. KEATING: A Life of Crime, by Sheila Mitchell (Level Best Books)

Best Children's/YA Mystery

  • MIDNIGHT AT THE BARCLAY HOTEL by Fleur Bradley (Viking Books for Young Readers)
  • PREMEDITATED MYRTLE by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Algonquin Young Readers)
  • SALTWATER SECRETS by Cindy Callaghan (Aladdin)
  • FROM THE DESK OF ZOE WASHINGTON by Janae Marks (Katherine Tegen Books)
  • HOLLY HERNANDEZ AND THE DEATH OF DISCO by Richard Narvaez (Piñata Books)